Your Dog May Be Dying To Eat Healthy - How To Find The Best Dog Food

Pet food companies have some of the cutest commercials I have ever seen but what about the nutritional value of the food?

I was looking at an old kibbles and bits commercial and I couldn’t help but smile the whole way through. Unfortunately that commercial had nothing to do with the food but everything to do with the cuteness of dogs’ noses.

So if these commercials have nothing to do with the food then we can’t depend on them to provide us with the best and healthiest choice of food for our dog.

I know many people that go to the local department store and buy the cheapest dog food they can find. These people are not even reading the labels on the pet food. They have no clue what the ingredients are but they believe that because it says ‘pet food’ on the outside it is good enough for their dogs.

I don’t understand those people, some have been close friends. Their only argument they have when I tell them their dog food is not that good for their dog is, “it’s just a dog”.

Then there are other people who look at their dog as an actual living being who need proper nutrition to stay alive.

These people tend to think they are doing the best for their dog by listening to their vet’s advice, the pet stores advice, or even those cute commercials that they get sucked into.

Unfortunately the vet, pet store, and commercials are not always right. A lot of these foods can make your pet unhealthy. Actually a lot of these foods don’t offer very good nutrition for your dog at all. But you can’t understand that unless you read the ingredients and understand what they are and what they do for your pet.

There are also the people that do read the ingredients while choosing a dog food. Some people know what these ingredients are and what they mean but there are also some people who know what most of the ingredients are but don’t understand what they offer their dog in the way of nutrition.

For instance corn is a big ingredient in a lot of dog food but does corn offer your pet actual nutrition or is it just filler that’s used to save the pet company money?

The first ingredient is the biggest part of your dogs pet food. Is corn the first ingredient on or is it meat?

The following piece of information is taken straight off of the fda.gov site in the animal and veterinary news and events section.

‘The low levels of sodium pentobarbital that dogs might receive through their food are unlikely to cause any health problems, according to an FDA study.

Pentobarbital is an anesthetizing drug used for dogs and other animals, such as horses and cattle. Because it is also widely used for humane euthanasia of dogs, cats and other animals, the most likely way that pentobarbital could get into dog food would be in rendered animal products. Rendered products come from a process that converts animal tissues to feed ingredients.’

This is just one of the many things that you may or may not be aware of. But either way it’s crazy to even think about.

So start researching your dogs food and encourage others to do the same. Our pets are suffering from more disease than ever and it’s time we put our foot down and start taking action when it comes to their nutrition.

There’s tons of information out there to help you make the decision about the best food to feed your dog.

Here’s a one stop shop loaded with information to help you choose the safest and healthiest dog food for your dog from someone with 18 years worth of research behind her. Dog Food Dangers

Splitting on Pet Food Labels

Meat - beef, chicken, lamb or venison should make up the bulk of what your dog or cat is eating and with a raw or homemade diet it is pretty easy to accomplish this task.

But with commercial pet food you get what you get so to speak and most people are quick to point out that chicken or fish or whatever meat is the first ingredient on their bags or cans label. Therefore they believe or picture it as the main ingredient in the food. But is it really the bulk of the food your pet is eating?

The first ingredient listed on a label always makes up the bulk of the food. That applies to all food that comes pre-made, canned, or bagged. So if corn is the first ingredient on the list than you already know that it's making up the most of the food and you can bypass it for a more meaty meal.

But pet food companies obviously want you to buy their food at the least cost to them. Because corn is an inexpensive filler for pet food pet, along with other grains, these pet food companies want to put it in there without us realizing that it is making up the majority of the food and they use label splitting to accomplish this.

Let's use corn as an example. There is a long list of corn products that can be used in pet food. These include:

Corn Flour - This is the small size, hard part of ground corn that contains modest amounts or none of the bran or germ.

Corn Bran - This is the outer covering of the corn kernel and contains little or none of the starchy part of the germ.

Corn gluten meal - This is the dried remains from the corn after the starch and germ are removed. It is a by-product of processing corn to make corn starch and corn syrup.

So to demonstrate food splitting let's use these corn products in an ingredient list.

Chicken, Corn Flour, Soybean Mill Run 16% (source of fiber), Chicken By-Product Meal, Powdered Cellulose, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Corn Bran, Soybean Oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, Vitamin D-3 supplement, folic acid, sodium selenite, biotin. A-4586.

So we may think that chicken is the biggest ingredient and corn flour is the second biggest ingredient but that's not really the case here.

When we pull out all the ingredients that actually come from corn we can see that they are spread around the ingredient list and clearly added together would make the bulk of the food. Corn as a whole would be the greatest ingredient of this food. And that's how food splitting works.

So check out your pet food and see if you've been feeding what you think you've been feeding or is food splitting with corn or other grains happening to you.

If it is you can bet that it's a trick to make you think otherwise and how much would you trust a food making company that's trying to trick you?

Learning your way around pet food whether it be commercial or homemade can be confusing. Learn how to make the healthiest decision for your pets by doing your research. Learn more at http://www.dogsfooddangers.com.